CUIPO
After Paul Frank, the Rain Forest
John Oswald traveled from cartoons to the rain forest.
In 2010, the former Paul Frank Industries chief executive officer sold the popular, cartoon character–inspired brand to media investment company Saban Capital Group for an undisclosed amount.
Next, Oswald founded two other clothing lines: Leisure Society and Royal Vintage Inc. His most recent line is Cuipo LLC, and a bunch of Paul Frank alums have joined him in this for-profit venture to save the rain forest.
Proceeds from sales of Cuipo apparel will go to buy rain-forest land in Latin America. Indigenous people will be employed to be stewards of the land, and they will also make some product for Cuipo. The company and its sister nonprofit organization OneMeterAtaTime.org are already working on some rain-forest land in Panama and Brazil, said Matt Genova, Cuipo’s sales director.
Former Paul Frank Art Director Alex Funderburk serves as Cuipo’s art director. For the label’s Spring 2014 line, he designed graphics that mix irreverence, activism and the grandeur of nature. One is a graphic of an anteater on the California state flag. Another is a clenched fist surrounded by leaves of a Cuipo tree and the slogan “Fight Deforestation.” There’s a shirt with a graphic of a monkey bearing the slogan “I Heart Trees.”
The Spring ’14 shirts are made from Pima cotton and regenerated cotton or scraps of fabric. The brand offers 28 different styles of colorways and graphics. It also sells socks and hats and will launch a kids’ line in August. The company exhibited its Spring ’14 line at the Agenda trade show in Long Beach July 25–26 and will also exhibit at Agenda in Las Vegas Aug. 19–20.
The shirts are $14 wholesale. For more information, contact sales@cuipo.org.
